"Experts believe that it was not an old Reaper that crashed near Sevastopol, but the top-end MQ-9 Reaper Block 5. Therefore, Russia has a great opportunity to obtain the latest modification of the US drone with all of its software and updated
intelligence modules.

This information will be of interest not only to Moscow, but also to Beijing and Tehran — China and Iran also design and build combat and reconnaissance drones. In a similar situation in Africa, the US military decided to destroy a $50 million-worth
UAV just to make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands.

Russia is interested in the following:

New technologies for internal combustion engine that ensures long and fast flights;
Composite skin materials (they have already been recovered). Russia could use the technology for its own UAVs and aircraft;
Electronic equipment that Russia could copy or give to China for reverse engineering), especially control and communications systems;
Satellite and other communications systems in order to understand how to jam drones like MQ-9 Reaper;
Software. US officials announced that they have deleted all the sensitive data, but it is believed that it is very hard to do it within mere seconds as the drone was falling into the sea.

In order to prevent the recovery of the wreckage of the Reaper that crashed near the Crimea, the United States has several options.

Of course, one may try to contact Turkey to negotiate the passage of some of the warships of the 6th Fleet of the US Navy from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. In other words, one could try to suspend the Montreux Convention.

The emergence of a couple of US Arleigh Burke type destroyers with Tomahawks near the search and rescue area would make the Russian military worry (there were such incidents in the past, during the times of the USSR). However, even a slight confrontation
would trigger WWIII instantly."
See more at https://english.pravda.ru/world/156084-reaper_drone_crash/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)